Purdue Women’s Basketball: Purdue 72, Wisconsin 61

The Boilermakers were on fire in route to a 72-61 victory today against Wisconsin at Mackey Arena to close out the year and decade on a high note.

Purdue dropped 72 points on 48% shooting from the field (26-54), 53% from behind the arc (7-13) and 86% from the free throw line (13-15). All coming from the starting lineup aside from a three pointer by Cassidy Hardin.

Leading the way was Purdue’s leader Karissa McLaughlin who scored 22 points on 7-12 shooting, 16 of which came during a huge first half. She connected on 5 three pointers and added 3 rebounds and 2 assists. She got back to her normal ways after struggling in the last two games for the Boilers.

The Boilermakers got huge contributions from seniors Ae’Rianna Harris and Dominique Oden today as well. Oden scored 20 points on 9-14 shooting from the field with 5 rebounds. Oden and McLaughlin switched roles at halftime with Oden scoring 16 of her 20 points in the second half to hold off the pesky Badgers who kept trying to claw their way back into the game. Harris dropped 14 points to go along with 7 rebounds and became the career leader in defensive rebounds in Purdue women’s history in addition to already being the career blocked shots leader.

Another other big performer from today’s game was junior guard Tamara Farquhar who posted a double-double with 10 points on 5-10 shooting and 11 rebounds.

Defensively, Purdue suffocated the Badgers who shot just 38% from the field and 18% from behind the arc. Aside from Wisconsin’s Imani Lewis scoring 20 points and adding 15 rebounds, the Badgers were largely held in check. This performance was on the heels of holding Ohio State to 31% shooting in their Big Ten opener.

With this win the Boilermakers move to 2-0 early in the Big Ten season and 11-3 overall tying them with the school down south for 1st in the conference at the moment.

Purdue will look to extend their 4 game winning streak against an 11-2 Rutgers squad who are 1-1 in Big Ten play after beating Wisconsin then losing to Indiana on Sunday January 5th in Mackey Arena.